By IT Correspondent
Mumbai/Delhi, July 2:
The Chinese smartphones — from companies such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and RealMe — will continue to work and not be immediately affected by the government action against 59 Chinese apps.
The ban will not functionality of device since users can switch to new apps which are available aplenty. However now the pre-installed apps will not be available. But the app ban may impact the strong grip that phone makers from across the border have on Indian markets. Chinese brands accounted for 81 per cent of the market till end March
While there has been an anti-Chinese goods sentiment in recent days, the government’s decision to block popular apps such as “TikTok”, “CamScanner” and “UC Browser” may create some fear among buyers who have traditionally opted for these smart phones as they are lighter on the pocket. In fact many “Tik Tok” users opted for these phones because they are high on features but are much cheaper compared to phones from “Samsung” or “Nokia”. Besides the “Tik Tok” users bought Chinese phones since they could be used to make good videos. The 59 banned apps include two apps used by “Xiaomi”.
With uncertainty around Chinese companies, in view of the recent government moves over scanning investments or import consignments from across the border — buyers may opt for “safer bets”, an executive with a mobile company said. However he agreed that most of the products were sourced from China.
The banned apps were present on the Android (Google) or iOS (Apple) app stores, but would be unavailable once the government diktat is implemented. They will also stop functioning on phones where they have already been down loaded. However this will not hamper functioning of devices, which will continue to work as usual. Customers can switch to new apps.
”There will definitely be a negative sentiment as people will ask twice before buying a Chinese product,” Neil Shah, Vice President of the “Counter Point Technology Market Research” based in Mumbai, said and added that non-Chinese brands, such as “Samsung” and “Apple” and even some of the home grown makers, may get to see a traction in demand. ”Counterpoint”, is a global industry analysis firm headquartered in Hong Kong.
In the meanwhile live streaming app “Bigo Live” has decided to unlist from the Google and Apple app stores in India. Both “Bigo Live” and “Likee”, owned by “Bigo Technologies”, have been named in the government’s list of banned mobile apps. “Bigo Live is under the Singapore-based Bigo Technology.
In another development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has signed out of his Chinese Twitter like social media “Weibo” account with his photo, posts and comments removed from the handle set up five years ago before his first visit to China as prime minister. Modi had 115 posts on Weibo, which had to be manually deleted because of a complex procedure for deleting VIP accounts. Modi had more than 2,44,000 followers on “Weibo”. ”Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo,” was his first post on the Chinese microblogging site.
